4/06/2011 @ 6:00PM

Why Are There So Few Rich Fictional Women?

There are 14 male characters and one female character on this year’s Fictional 15. Sadly, this is not unusual. There are always women on the list, but all too often, only one.

The highest-ranked woman ever was “Mom” from the television show Futurama, who placed fourth in 2007, with a fictional net worth of $15.7 billion. Lara Croft, star of the Tomb Raider videogames and movies, has appeared on the Fictional 15 three times since 2005. There have never been more than two women on the list in a single year.

Our fictional reporters–the best in the business–have worked hard to rectify this gender imbalance, even breaking Fictional 15 rules against folkloric characters (the Tooth Fairy appeared in 2010). But the gap persists.

Some female characters are perennial candidates. Miss Havisham, the well-off spinster from Great Expectations, is considered every year and dismissed on the grounds that she simply isn’t rich enough. And at every fictional story meeting, someone is sure to nominate one of the
Disney
princesses, usually Snow White or Ariel. One problem here is that you need to infer their wealth from the fact that they live in castles and wear fancy dresses. They aren’t known for being rich within their fictional worlds in the same way as C. Montgomery Burns or Bruce Wayne.

@CAROLINEHOWARD FORBES

Why so few? The answer is quite simple: a small pool of candidates. For some reason authors, screenwriters, directors, and comic book artists haven’t been creating many ultrarich female characters. That is equally true for writers of yore, present and those tackling the future or fantasy. Kinda like the real world. Look at the 2011 Forbes World Billionaires list. A paltry 1.5% are self-made women–19 out of 1,210. And if we include the heiresses and widows, that makes 103 ladies, or just 8.5%.

The concept of a self-made woman of means is brand-new, relative to the history of fiction. If money means power, the only wealthy women permissible in generations–and storybooks–past would have been either the wives, daughters or widows of wealthy men or royals. And those images continue into the present, not necessarily as stereotypes so much as prototypes. Is Hollywood really ready for the tale of the beautiful, wealthy woman who sweeps the frail, impoverished young man off his feet and marries him?